About the Collection
The A.V. Lane Museum Collection is named in honor of Dallas collector Dr. Alvin Valentine Lane (1860-1938). Dr. Lane began donating his collection of antiquities to SMU in 1917, and in 1926, SMU opened the first University Museum in old Kirby Hall. The museum was later named the A.V. Lane Museum in honor of Dr. Lane’s generosity and leadership.
Dr. Alvin Valentine Lane was a prominent Dallas banker, scholar, and civic benefactor. Raised in New Orleans, he received his doctorate in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1882. Joining the faculty of the new University of Texas in 1883, he soon turned to business and co-founded what became the First National Bank in Dallas in 1888. He was a prominent member in several banking associations and served his community as treasurer of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, as director of both the Dallas Public Library and Museum of Fine Arts, and as supporter of the Dallas Symphony and Historical Society. He also received the highest distinction in the order of Masons, was a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in 1931 earned an honorary doctorate from SMU.
Dr. Lane's lifelong interest in early Egyptian and Babylonian cultures led him to compile an extensive collection of ancient artifacts. He became a prominent member of the Archaeological Institute of America and the honorary secretary of the Texas branch of the Egyptian Exploration Society of London. In 1922 he arranged for the British Museum's permanent deposit of twelve important papyrus fragments at SMU.
After Dr. Lane's death in 1938, SMU Theology professor J. H. Hicks was named Director of the Lane Museum. Dr. Hicks, along with longtime SMU librarian Kate Warnick, oversaw significant additions to the collections, including the 1941 purchase of four Egyptian canopic jars. The last significant addition to the Lane Museum was the Georg Steindorff archive of Egyptian archaeology, purchased in 1952. This, along with the rest of the museum's holdings, became a part of what is today Bridwell Library's Special Collections.